


Emancipation.  1/1.

by punky_96



Series: Runner [2]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 09:29:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punky_96/pseuds/punky_96
Summary: Re-post from LJ.AU. Callie follows the Runner. What happens now?Beta: dianeb_047 Thank you so, so much!!!





	Emancipation.  1/1.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The first fic felt a little DWP “Lily & The Crown,” but as I’ve continued to linger on this in my mind I feel more like the kids’ book The City Of Ember (book not movie) or maybe The Giver (book).

**_Emancipation_**  
  
They had been on the run for twenty-three days. NML had been left behind on the first day and Callie had only looked back once. Born into Power, daughter of the Matriarch, sister to the Wielder of Power even after the coup—the Outpost was all she had ever known. The House of Neutrality had been a step away, the beginning of her break with all she had known, but it was the most superficial of cuts when what was needed was a full excavation. Living in two dimensions, Callie had been a doctor within the city under the benevolent rule of her mother. She had tended to soldiers that put themselves in harm’s way for the Outpost. More controversially, she had tended to prisoners who had been hurt in accidents working or who had been wounded after running. Callie had no concept of what was beyond the fence of the Outpost, but she was drawn to the Runners nonetheless. Their silence around her was intriguing. Even so, the furthest Callie could imagine was the House of Neutrality, barely beyond the edge of the Outpost. She could not bring herself to go further any more than she could understand a life without the Outpost and its structures.  
  
The Runner had changed all of that. A Prisoner by definition and mark, Erica was not made from this mold. She did not fit in with the definitions. She broke free of them. Breaking her bonds time and again, until she would have been put to death for it, Erica broke the two dimensions of Callie’s world giving her a third. With Erica’s eyes, Callie could begin to see a world that was not Power/Prisoner, Outpost/NML or even acceptance/death. Leaving was not death, as Callie had always been told it was. She was surprised that no one stopped them. How many people were outside the Outpost once an unofficial buffer zone had been traversed was shocking.  
  
More and more people appeared on the roads. None of them were going to the Outpost. They looked at Callie suspiciously, but Erica’s protective hand at her back calmed them. In this place Callie was not a Power, but she seemed to be suffering the effects of her upbringing. Erica became less reserved and her eyes reflected the limitless blue of the sky above them.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
On the fifteenth night, Erica made friends with a caravan on the same road and they sat around the fire listening to stories of the group and their travels. The group was two families and a few friends that had joined together over time. In the late hours of the night, all of the others went into their covered carriages and left Erica to tend the fire with Callie. They would be sleeping in the glow of its warmth and light before moving on in the morning. Curled up in Erica’s strong arms, Callie ran her fingers over the Runner’s Mark on her arm. “They are still suspicious of me.”  
  
Erica held her tighter but said nothing.  
  
“I need different clothes, Erica.” Callie continued to trace her Runner’s Mark. She turned and caught Erica’s lips in a passionate kiss. Her hand came up to hold the back of Erica’s head firmly to her as she licked and sucked her beautiful lips until they were pink and puffy from it. She pulled away and whispered in Erica’s ear as her hand resumed its tracing of the Mark. “I need to be like you.”  
  
Erica firmly held Callie’s hand against her Mark. “No.” She said long and slow. They had had this conversation before and Erica had always refused to agree with Callie. Clothes would be a simple enough change to accomplish. “Marjorie will have some clothes for you in the morning before they leave. We can make them breakfast out of our rations to pay for them.” In her mind Erica thought, ‘But I will not have you branded just to fit in. Freedom does not come from a mark.’  
  
As Erica rolled away from Callie, she pulled Callie’s arm with her so that Callie was flush against her back. Callie could tell that Erica wanted to end this conversation. Her body was tense and she was silent, but Callie knew it was only this disagreement and not something more. Erica keeping Callie close to her spoke volumes about their relationship. Callie kissed Erica’s shoulder through her shirt and moved her hand enough to adjust the blanket. Somehow, she always ended up cold in the night, so she snuggled tightly against her lover’s side. Rough, on the move, sometimes cold and hungry, Callie would rather be living this tough existence than suffocating on her comfort back in NML at her House of Neutrality.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
Fresh clothes in the morning and they had set off once more. A storm formed on the horizon and met them one evening near some cliffs and a small river. They sheltered under the rock overhang, but Callie could not resist the freedom of a summer storm. She had never breathed the wet air or been allowed to taste the fresh raindrops on her tongue. The warmth of the day still simmered in the rocks and only the darkness and the lightning drove her under the overhang for protection. Even Erica enjoyed their forced stop as the storm passed them by and continued on. As a Prisoner, she had not been able to simply enjoy the small delights of the world around her. As a Runner, she had been marked for death and could only see the step in front of her, not look around and smell the long gone roses.  
  
A small fire, a pair of thin blankets, and body heat were all that they had. Laughter and playful pushing gave way to slow undressing and long lingering kisses. Callie shivered as the wet clothes stuck to her body were slowly pulled away from the skin by Erica’s long fingers. Her flesh goose-bumped with delight and a chill so she feverishly pulled Erica’s clothes from her body. The small fire had plenty of logs to add from the pile and the heat of their passion would last through the night. Erica lay Callie down on the blanket and pulled back to look at her exposed form. “Your body is so beautiful, Cal.” It was a statement of fact and reverence. Callie touched a place in her being that no one had ever come close to before. “I need to touch you.” Erica said as she lay down half on and half off of Callie and let her mouth and hands express her passion.  
  
Callie reveled in the touch of her lover and inhaled her scent as well as that of the cool rain. Never could she have dreamed of this. Never would she have imagined how simple paradise would be. Never would she have realized that it was within her reach. Callie breathed in her freedom, her love, and she felt the overwhelming transformations within herself. Inside of her the wings of freedom and love fluttered and tested themselves. Her legs opened wider to welcome Erica. The build-up of anticipation changed her breathing. Her whole body readied itself to take flight and yet to stay firmly secure and safe with Erica.  
  
The lightning cracked over their heads as Callie moaned loudly into Erica’s shoulder. Her hands grasped at Erica’s body wanting to possess it completely. Callie’s body tensed and her hips bucked up to meet Erica’s thrusts into her. She had begun to whimper Erica’s name in a broken chant. The hot breath of Erica coaxing her really sent Callie over the edge. “Come for me, Callie. Let me feel all of you.” The first clap of thunder hit and Callie’s body went rigid as she sucked in a hiss of air. Then as her body began to undulate over and over against Erica, the thunder rumbled low and out over the horizon. When the last echoes of it were no longer in the valley to be heard, Callie stilled.  
  
Callie clutched onto Erica as she kissed her neck and shoulder and clung onto the moment. She pulled her lover on top of her to fully feel her body against her own. Her hand found the Runner’s Mark on her chest and she traced it. “Mark me as yours, Erica.” Instead of responding, the blue eyes fluttered shut as she sought out Callie’s lips with her own. Wanting to see her lover, Erica sat up to look into Callie’s eyes. Their fingertips held the same rhythm as their eyes struggled to stay open as their passions built together. Their mutual release sounded like a thunderclap echoing out across the valley.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
On the twenty-fourth day, Erica stopped at the top of a ravine edge and looked down. “We’re here.” She said quietly. Her expressions were usually hard to read, but Callie could tell that she was proud. Callie wasn’t sure if she was proud they had arrived safely despite their initial fears, or whether she was proud of the place that she was taking Callie to, or something else utterly. Callie turned her to her and pulled her in for a kiss.  
  
They made their way down the steep trail to the bottom of the ravine. In a thicket on the curve of a little stream, Erica lay their things down and approached a twist of three trees that Callie suddenly realized was a cover for a building down below the earth. She followed Erica uncertainly. A small room greeted them with two doors going off from the back wall to adjoining rooms. Callie briefly thought of the badger’s house in Prince Caspian, but shook that idea out of her head. “Tonight, you will meet the people that I grew up with.”  
  
*** *** ***  
  
“They don’t like me, Erica.” Callie said in a small sad voice. “They know that I’m different. I told you, I needed to be like you.” Callie reached up to touch the obvious mark on Erica’s arm, but her hand was roughly grabbed.  
  
“No. Callie.” Erica hissed. “Free people do not need marks.”  
  
Callie pulled her hand away and resisted the urge to flounce across the room. It was late and the evening had not gone as well as either of them had hoped. Instead, Callie sighed and tried once again to explain herself. “In the Outpost an R mark is for a Runner. Powers do not have a mark. The lack of a mark is its own kind of mark, Erica.” Callie paused and stepped closer again to her blonde lover. “Out here R is a mark for Real. You are a Real person, Erica.  That’s why everyone responds to you. I am a no mark, a no-body, a power-less power.” Callie reached up and touched Erica’s hair with light fingertips. “If you cannot mark me as a Runner, then mark me as yours, Erica.”  
  
Erica looked at her with large questioning eyes that were ready to break open like a stormy blue sky. “What?” Her eyes searched Callie’s face for meaning.  
  
“I lived in No Man’s Land so long I didn’t know who I was, Erica. I didn’t belong to the Power or the Outpost, but I could not get away from it either.” Callie wrapped her arm around her lover’s waist. “I am free of all of that with you. I’m with Erica and I am Emancipated. You took me out of NML and brought me here with you. Mark me and make me yours.”  
  
Erica’s eyes went wide as Callie stepped back and reached into the fire. She pulled a mostly burned stick out that was black from previous fires. With the black of ash on her skin Callie drew an ‘E’ on her chest in the same place that Erica’s first runner’s mark was.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
A metal ‘E’ was easy enough to find among the groups of settlers. Callie spent the day tending the fire and cooking with what herbs and vegetables Erica had been able to bring home earlier. Even though she was the one about to be branded, Callie knew that she would need to be the reassuring one to Erica. She understood that Erica’s brands had not come out of love and that as such she had a lot of resentment for them. She hoped that her own brand would show Erica some of what she saw in her. Her mark was to show how much she was willing to commit to something and make it a part of herself. For the Outpost, the mark of a Runner was a negative, but Callie could only see it as a positive—a woman wanting to live in a way that was better than the Power offered and willing to risk her life for it.  
  
“Are you sure, Callie?” Erica’s voice cracked as she kneeled facing her lover in front of the fireplace.  
  
“You told me once that if you went back you would die, that if you left you would die, and if you lived in the half shadows you would die.” Callie waited for Erica to look deep into her eyes and remember with her. “It is my turn to say it to you. If I go back I will die. If I left you and this life of freedom I will die. And if I try to go back and live in the shadows of Neutrality and NML then I will surely die.” Callie reached out and held Erica’s hand that was resting on the end of the branding iron. “This is my final step toward living free and no more running. I will be marked Emancipated. There will be no going back for me.” Leaning forward, Callie pressed her lips to Erica’s sharing all of her passion in her kiss.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
A mug of rum dulled the pain for both of them and they woke many hours later in the cold of an absent fire. Callie was the first to rise and she held out her hand to pull Erica up with her. Stumbling on tired feet, they made it to the little bedroom in the back of the dwelling. Callie turned on the small bedside light as they undressed for bed and adjusted the blankets. When they were lying face-to-face Erica reached out and delicately traced the fresh burn wound of the brand. Callie arched into the touch enjoying the pain of it and the sensitivity. “Erica.” She breathed out. Her free arm trailed down Erica’s side and over the front of her leg until she was gently pushing Erica to open her legs for her. Erica complied and Callie traced her clit as Erica continued to trace the ‘E’ on Callie’s chest.  
  
Erica’s nipples brushed against her own, as Erica writhed into the sensations of Callie’s fingers on her sex. The other hand that Callie was laying on reached down to her own sex. She lay back onto the mattress and Erica shifted with her. No longer tracing the fresh wound of the brand Erica’s fingers trailed all over Callie’s skin. Erica pinched Callie’s nipples and she watched the movements of Callie’s hands against both of their sexes. It was a slow sexy process, but Callie knew that they were both getting close. When Erica’s hand lingered on her hip, Callie grabbed her hand and placed it against the wet of her sex. Her hand free again, Callie began to trace Erica’s Mark on her upper arm as she let her hips buck harder into Erica’s touch. Rocking this way with fingertips on brands and clits throbbing with desire they reached a passionate climax together.  
  
A kiss that was rough and wet allowed them to taste each other’s passion as they passed moans and whimpers back and forth between them, breaking the kiss and renewing its vigor as their bodies undulated with fresh jolts of pleasure. Certain it was time for the sun to rise once more they fell into a joyous slumber wrapped around each other and still touching each other as emotionally entwined as they were physically.  
  
It was not running if they were truly free.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
****_Fin_  
  


 

 

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